Victor’s Secret is out

Victor and Cathy Moseley won a legal battle before the U.S. Supreme Court a few years, back, but they ultimately lost the legal war with the retail chain Victoria’s Secret.

In 2003, the Moseleys won a Supreme Court decision which threw out an injunction preventing the couple from using the names “Victor’s Secret” or “Victor’s Little Secret” for their lingerie and adult novelty store in Elizabethtown, Ky.

But last week a district court read the Federal Trademark Dilution Act as barring the couple from using the store names, ruling that the store names diluted Victoria’s Secret’s trademark value because the Moseleys sold racy things right along with its lacy things.

“The use of the remarkably similar ‘Victor’s Secret’ or ‘Victor’s Little Secret’ in connection with the sale of intimate lingerie along with sex toys and adult videos tarnishes the reputation of the Victoria’s Secret mark,” wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson.

In 2002 the couple changed the name of their store to “Cathy’s Little Secret.”

*NOTE: This version contains corrections from the original post, specifically: there was only one action by Victoria’s secret against the Moseleys, not two, and the Federal Trademark Dilution Act predeates the 2003 Supreme Court ruling. The original post was based on an account by the Associated Press.